Meet the horses!

[my miss storm cat]

Random bits, pieces, background, etc., on some of the lesser-knowns, in or heading to Dubai.

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From South African Racing.....


THE SUN CLASSIQUE STORY

Top class South African filly Sun Classique, now plying her trade in Dubai with great success has a rich pedigree and heritage.

The Australian bred filly won the Listed Balanchine Stakes at Nad Al Sheba on Friday 22 February. This was a mere two weeks after she made her Dubai winning debut in the Listed Cape Verdi Stakes, but the story does not end there. Her dam was a last bid purchase by Lionel Cohen, who claims that his wife Caroline urged him to one more effort. That was the decisive blow and history was in the offing.

Sun Classique is a triple Group One winner in South Africa and was voted Champion Three Year Old Filly last season. She has already been nominated for the Group One Dubai Duty Free and the Group One Dubai Sheema Classic.

Her dam, Elfenjer (Australia) was mated to Fuji Kiseki (Japan) at the Widden Stud by leading South African owner and breeder Lionel Cohen. Elfenjer cost Lionel Cohen a mere A$32 000 (AUS) at the 2003 Inglis Broodmare Sale. He went on to mention that his contacts at Widden Stud didn't paint the grandest picture of a proposed sale of the product between Fuji Kiseki and Elfenjer, citing the competitive market conditions of that time. Sun Classique was packed off to South Africa as a weanling and grew at Cohen's Odessa Stud.

When she was placed on auction at his Equimark Sale, she garnered not a single bid, which Cohen attributed to South Africans not fully understanding her breeding. The rest, as they say, is history, with Cohen keeping her for himself and later selling a share of her to his current partner, Warne Rippon.

Sun Classique is the first stakes winner produced by her dam Elfenjer, daughter of leading broodmare sire Last Tycoon (Ireland).

Elfenjer is daughter of the mare Gamine who herself won nine races including the Group One South Australian Oaks over 2400m.

http://www.sahorseracing.com/columnist.asp?col=3